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Aric Clark: This Is What Unconditional Support of Israel Means

By Aric Clark

For the Times

Posted:
01/30/2014 04:00:00 PM MST

Aric Clark Fort Morgan Times

On Tuesday evening President Barack Obama delivered this year's State of the Union address. Among the many things he said was a reiteration of our longstanding unconditional support of the state of Israel. Specifically, he said, "American diplomacy is supporting Israelis and Palestinians as they engage in difficult but necessary talks to end the conflict there; to achieve dignity and an independent state for Palestinians, and lasting peace and security for the State of Israel — a Jewish state that knows America will always be at their side." I recently returned from Israel and I've seen what it is we are unconditionally supporting.

Two weeks ago I was walking through the Palestinian refugee camp of Aida outside Bethlehem in the West Bank. I was there to meet a man named Mohammad Al-Azraq who is the program director of a youth center located in the camp. Mohammad took me on a tour of Aida Refugee Camp which was created in 1948 after the forced evacuation of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and villages by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). Most of the residents of Aida Camp came from villages in the near vicinity, but in violation of international laws guaranteeing all refugees the right of return to their place of origin they have never been allowed to go home.

They live in perpetual limbo. What started as a gathering of tents and shacks 65 years ago has become cinder-block construction. The 3,500 residents of Aida Camp have intermittent electricity and water that Israel regularly shuts off, so they have learned to rely on rain-water collection tanks on their roofs. Due to a strike by United Nations Refugee Workers there has been no trash collection, the schools are closed, and no one has been staffing the medical clinic for four months.

As if the situation of these refugees wasn't dire enough, Aida Camp is under constant siege by the IDF. When the separation barrier went up it cut Aida Camp off from agricultural land that had been sustaining the residents. A checkpoint in the barrier near the camp has become the site of daily clashes between the IDF and Palestinian youth. Tear gas canisters litter the ground throughout the camp. Every one of them has "Made in the USA" printed on the side. You can smell yesterday's tear gas in the air as you walk through the alleys. Less than an hour after I left Aida camp I looked back over the separation wall to see plumes of tear gas rising from the camp again.

Mohammad Al-Azraq tries to create a little normalcy in the lives of the children of Aida Camp through his work at Lajee Youth Center. There is a playground, a computer lab, and a soccer field. Children come there for dance lessons, tutoring, and just to escape the stress for a few hours. On Tuesday afternoon, mere hours before Obama reaffirmed our unconditional support of the state of Israel, Mohammad Al-Azraq was shot in the head by an IDF soldier while he was inside the Lajee center when he stuck his head out a window to call to youth who were protesting in the street. He fortunately received medical attention and survived.

This is what it means to unconditionally support the state of Israel. It means we bear responsibility for that wall, for those tear gas canisters, for those children without schools, and those parents without medicine. With my tax dollars I helped pay for the gun and the bullet that spilled the blood of a man whose hand I shook a couple weeks ago.

Rev. Aric Clark is the pastor of United Presbyterian Church of Fort Morgan. Read more of his writing on his blog at http://twofriarsandafool.com